About

Hello!

Welcome to my humble, brand new blog. I began this space for people who share any of the many annoying stomach issues that I’ve grown up with. I am a 22-year-old Florida native who now lives in Baltimore and works in DC. I’m lucky enough to work at the American Red Cross HQ on youth disaster preparedness!

Both eating on a strict diet and dealing with severe stomach pains is difficult with a busy, active schedule…but I’m working on it!

I have found many, many beautiful blogs full of delicious and helpful recipes, but none so far dedicated entirely to the low-FODMAP diet that I’ve recently been put on. I hope this will help many of you…and I hope many of you will share your tricks and recipes with me!

What on earth does low-FODMAP mean?

I hardly know myself. When my doctor prescribed it, she didn’t stay to explain for very long and I was left with a weird sound and a confusing list of unacceptable foods that I had always love. The low-FODMAP diet originated in Australia and has been highly effective for some people with severe IBS and other stomach/intestinal issues and discomfort. To quote www.lowfodmap.com, FODMAP’s are sugars—specifically Fermentable Oligo-saccharides Di-saccharides Mono-saccharides And Polyols. Some people can’t absorb these sugars and end up having bad gas, nausea, cramping, and other indigestion issues. If you Wiki “Fructose Malabsorption” it’ll be like reading a biography of my stomach– and probably of many others’. I wasn’t completely sold on this diet until a few days ago when I tested it– I had a Naked Juice containing mango, papaya, peach, and apples which are all banned fruits. I had the worst stomach ache in months. Woot.

So what can you eat?

More than you’d think! While most gluten is completely off-limits, certain dairy is acceptable (hard cheeses, half & half, small amounts of cream cheese and sour cream, etc.). Plus all proteins! So all the meat, fish, and chicken you can bear is completely fine—a life-saver for me. The tricky things are the fruits and veggies and small details like no garlic or green onions (these are in alllllmost every packaged or prepared foods). Check out lists of acceptable fruits and veggies on websites like www.lowfodmap.com and others. For me, not being able to eat apples, watermelon, eggplant, and orange juice is challenging. However, I’ve discovered all sorts of new creative dishes and foods which is why I started writing this blog!

So about this blog….

I absolutely do not know everything about this new diet or all of the symptoms and treatments associated with it. I’m slowly figuring out what works—and doesn’t work—for me and trying to creatively design new dishes that fit in. I have to admit, I sometimes cheat– not being completely allergic to these things means if you can bear the consequences, that cupcake happens every now and then. I can also tolerate small amounts of gluten per day, so if you’re completely gluten-free please just be cautious! I am hoping that this blog may help others like me, but I am also definitely hoping for any feedback, advice, corrections, suggestions, or new ideas! Please comment or contact me for anything.